Tuesday, July 29, 2014

Brazil
crossed the line on Israel

Andres Oppenheimer

While most of
the world has condemned the violence in Gaza, in most cases blaming both sides
with various degrees of criticism for one or the other, Brazil has crossed the
line by virtually endorsing the Hamas terrorist group’s narrative of the
conflict — and for going even beyond countries such as Egypt and Jordan in its
actions against Israel.

In a July 23
comunique, Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff’s government stated that “we
strongly condemn the disproportional use of force by Israel in the Gaza Strip,
which has resulted in an elevated number of civilian victims.”

It added that
Brazil was recalling its ambassador to Israel for consultations — something
that not even Arab countries such as Egypt or Jordan have done at the time of
this writing.

Brazil’s
communique placed Brazil in the league with Cuba, Venezuela, Bolivia, Ecuador
and other countries that automatically side with military dictatorships and
human rights abusers across the world. Now, Brazil is reportedly seeking a
statement against Israel at the July 29 South American Mercosur bloc meeting.

Many other
countries have condemned the “disproportionate use of force” by Israel, but
most — including Argentina, which normally echoes Brazil’s stands — have
simultaneously condemned Hamas for its systematic rocket attacks against
Israeli civilian targets, which Israel says started the latest round of
violence.

Furthermore, the
United States and the 28-member European Union, which consider Hamas as a
terrorist group, have specifically condemned Hamas use of civilians as human
shields.

On July 17, the
United Nations Agency responsible for Palestinian refugees, known by its
acronym UNRWA, announced that it had discovered 20 Hamas rockets hidden in a
U.N. school in Gaza. A few days later, UNRWA announced a similar finding at
another U.N. school.

Following
Brazil’s one-sided condemnation of Israel, Israel’s foreign ministry issued a
statement saying that Brazil’s behavior “illustrates the reason why that
economic and cultural giant remains politically irrelevant” on the world scene.
Israeli officials said Israel’s unusually strong reaction was primarily
triggered by Brazil’s decision to recall its ambassador.

By comparison,
the United States and the 28-member European Union started their statements on
the Gaza conflict stressing Israel’s right to defend itself.

The Council of
the European Union, which includes France, Belgium and several other countries
with huge Muslim populations, issued a statement on July 22 stating that “the
European Union strongly condemns the indiscriminate firing of rockets into
Israel by Hamas.”

It adds that
“the EU strongly condemns (Hamas) calls on the civilian population of Gaza to
provide themselves as human shields,” and that “while recognizing Israel’s
legitimate right to defend itself against any attacks, the EU underlines that
the Israeli military operation must be proportionate and in line with
international humanitarian law.”

Brazil may have
recalled its ambassador for domestic political reasons, and because it is
courting radical Arab and African states in its quest to get a permanent seat
at the U.N. Security Council.

Jose Miguel
Vivanco, head of the Americas section of the Human Rights Watch advocacy group,
says that former Brazilian President Luiz Innacio Lula da Silva — Rousseff’s
political mentor — consistently sided with the world’s worst human rights
violators during his years in office.

More recently,
under Rousseff, Brazil has significantly improved its human rights voting
record at the U.N. Human Rights Council, but not so in other diplomatic fora.
In Latin America, for instance, Brazil has remained silent about the massive
human rights violations committed by Venezuelan security forces, Vivanco says.

“Brazil is doing
the right thing in strongly protesting against Israel for the disproportionate
use of force that has generated huge numbers of civilian casualties, but at the
same time it should not fail to condemn Hamas’ indiscriminate and constant
rocket attacks against Israel’s civilian population,” Vivanco told me.

My opinion:
Israel can be blamed for failing to prevent civilian deaths in specific cases
during the Gaza conflict, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government
can also be blamed for not doing enough to speed up the much-needed creation of
a Palestinian state, but Israel cannot be blamed for defending itself.

No country in
the world can be asked to sit idly by while a terrorist group fires thousands
of rockets against its big cities, while using civilians as human shields. Much
less when, unlike Al Fatah and more moderate Palestinian groups, Hamas calls
for the annihilation of Israel, and teaches Palestinian children that killing
Jews is a service to Allah.

If Brazil wants
to be taken seriously as a modern democracy and a responsible world actor, it
should act like one.